1 lakh Aakash 2 units to be delivered by year-end

New Delhi: The much-talked about low-cost Aakash 2 will make its entry to the world of tablets by the third week of July. This was revealed by Datawind CEO Sunil Singh Tuli, in an interview with IBNLive.

"We have given 100 units to IIT Bombay for testing, and are still waiting for the final approval from them, which is likely to come by the second or third week of July," he said. "We will start delivering the Aakash 2 tablet as the final approval comes," Tuli added.

We will deliver the entire order of 1,00,000 Aakash 2 tablets over the next four months, said Datawind's CEO.

Asked about the rollout plans, Tuli said, "After receiving the final approval from IIT Bombay, we will start delivering the units to them," adding, "Initially, IIT Bombay will buy units for teachers' training and later to give them to students."

He further informed, "We will deliver the entire order of 1,00,000 Aakash 2 tablet units over the next four months beginning this month." This, in turn, means that though the tablet will be released this month, but students will have to wait a little longer.

Datawind will sell the upgraded Aakash tablet to IIT Bombay at a price of Rs 2,263. According to Tuli, students will be given the tablets by the government at a subsidised price between Rs 1000 and Rs 1500.

Tuli also put some light on the key specifications of the upcoming Aakash 2 tablet. Compared to the previous version of the Aakash tablet, which proved to be a dud, the company has now upgraded some of the key features to enhance the user experience.

The original Aaaksh tablet was powered by a 366 MHz processor, but the new Aakash 2 tablet will come engineered with a Cortex A8 800 MHz processor. Besides, the upgraded Aakash will run Android 2.3 operating system, whereas its predecessor had Android 2.2 OS.

The previous version of Aakash had a 7-inch resistive touch screen, but the new Aakash tablet will have a 7-inch multitouch capacitive screen.

The Aakash 2 tablet will have 256MB RAM, 2GB (internal) flash memory, which is expandable up to 32 using a micro SD card, and 3200mAh battery that is claimed to offer 3-4 hours of backup. Also, it will have a USB port and WiFi.

Talking about its recently launched low-cost UbiSlate 7+ and 7c tablets, Tuli said that the company had received around 3.4 million pre-orders for the UbiSlate 7+ tablet. And, the delivery has been taking place since April 26.

As far as the UbiSlate 7c model is concerned, the company has started taking pre-orders beginning the last week of June, and the delivery for the same will begin by the middle of this month, said Tuli.

He also said that the company is planning to introduce the Android ICS-based UbiSlate tablets in August. "And, if IIT Bombay agrees in the future, we might also come up with the Android ICS-powered Aakash tablet," Tuli said.